Night Frights
by Mrs. X Anonymous
Summary: My first piece! Set after the season 6 finale (it's been hanging around for a while, I know). Basically a short, sweet two-chapter story, hope you enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

Ima looked worriedly at her mistress. She was tossing and turning in the bed, suffering from a terrible nightmare. After 10 minutes of trying unsuccessfully to wake her, the young maid decided to take a different course of action.

Her mistress had continually called out a name in her sleep - William Murdoch - so she decided to call him. She vaguely remembered her telling her about him, that he rescued her from the noose, but knew nothing more.

MMMMMM

The operator put her through to his office in Station House #4 where even at the late time of 11:53 he was still working. "Detective Murdoch?" she hesitantly asked the person on the end of the phone.

"Yes. Who's speaking?" he asked.

"Ima Wilson, sir. I'm Miss Ogden's maid, been with her near a month now."

When he was told her mistress's name, she heard his voice become anxious. "Is she okay? Is Julia okay?"

Ima considered how to answer this. "Well... she's having a terrible nightmare. I-I tried to wake her, but it hasn't worked. She kept calling for you, so I wondered if you might be able to help. This probably sounds extremely foolish I'm sure, but could you possibly-" she stopped abruptly when the phone on the other end was hung up. How rude! Well, so much for that plan.

She returned to her mistress's side with a cloth and water to try to either calm her down or wake her up, but she showed no signs of doing either. Hardly three minutes after she had put the telephone down, the doorbell rang. 'Who can be coming to call in this weather?' she thought, looking at the raging storm outside. 'At this time, even!'

The young maid went cautiously to answer the door, the rapid and frequent knocking doing nothing to speed her progress. When she had finally lifted the latch, the door swung open inwards and she came face to face with a well-dressed man.

"Detective William Murdoch," he said, showing her his badge. "Where is she?"

MMMMMM

He had hurried to her house as quickly as he could, and even now raced up the stairs, taking them two at a time. She was even worse than he had imagined, he saw as he entered through the open doorway to her room. The maid - Ima, he thought she had said - followed more sedately behind him and closed the door. "Forgive me," she started, "she has been like this for over half an hour, and I didn't know what else to do."

William sat down on the bed beside his beautiful lover, now covered with sweat and thrashing around wildly. He shook her shoulder and called her name in an attempt to bring her back to reality. Success came to him in the form of a particularly loud thunderclap. Julia sat straight up with wide eyes. "William?" She collapsed into his arms, sobbing. "Thank you, Ima. You may go now." The maid knew when she was being given an order, and nodded before making her way back downstairs.

William turned his attention to the woman next to him. Rubbing her back, he spoke gently to her, "It's okay. No one can hurt you now. Gillies is gone, he can't get you." When her sobs lessened, he turned to face her. "You're okay, my love."

Julia nodded and pulled back to look at him. She asked shakily, "William, why did you come? I was only having a nightmare."

"No you weren't," he said with disbelief. "I know this has happened before, when you were buried? Besides, you needed me here when you woke up."

She sighed, unable to deny what he had just said. "Well, thank you. What time is it?" Julia lay sideways on the bed.

He glanced down at a clock that rested on her bedside table and replied, "Just gone midnight. What of it?" He lay down beside her and snuggled up closely.

"You should go home and get some sleep. I'll be alright," she conditioned with a shudder.

"Julia, I couldn't leave you now. You're the one who needs the rest. Besides, if I don't stay, what would happen if you had another nightmare?" she shrugged and leaned into him.

"Thank you. Also William, I'm sorry about earlier."

"Don't worry about that. You lost your husband; you're supposed to mourn. I'm just glad you're okay." He paused to think for a second. "Julia?" he asked hesitantly.

"Mmm?"

"I love you."

She turned in his arms considering this, before replying, "I love you too."

He smiled before leaning in to kiss her.


	2. Chapter 2

Halfway through her early breakfast there was a knock on the door, so Ima got up to answer it. Standing in front of her was a very sleepy but enthusiastic police officer, a constable, she could tell from his attire.

"Constable George Crabtree," he introduced himself. "Is Doctor Ogden in? Only, there's been a murder, and Detective Murdoch was not at his home. I wondered if she happened to know of his whereabouts?"

Ima raised her eyebrows. "Actually Constable, Detective Murdoch is here. If you wait in the parlour, I'll go and fetch him."

"Thank you. I'll come with you."

He followed her up the grand staircase, one he had seen many times before but still awed him.

When she stopped at the door to the Doctor's room, he raised an eyebrow but said nothing. "He's in here," Ima told him. She made her escape, going thankfully down the stairs. The maid didn't want to discover something she'd rather not.

George knocked on the door. "Sir? Are you decent?"

He heard nothing for a moment. "George?" The Detective's voice spoke. "Hang on." After a moment, he came to the door, in his clothes from the day before. "What is it?" he asked.

"W-well, Sir, I'm afraid there's been a murder."

Murdoch groaned and rubbed his eyes. "Give me ten minutes."

MMMMMM

Sure enough, ten minutes later he and the constable walked out of the door to the crime scene. George broke the uncomfortable silence. "I just wanted to say Sir, good on you."

The Detective looked puzzled. "Why?"

"Well, Sir," he started to explain, "I mean, with Doctor Ogden."

"No, George. It wasn't like that."

"No, Sir? Then what was it like?"

"Look, just because two people share a-a bed, it doesn't mean they..." he gestured vaguely with his hands.

"Oh, well, I thought maybe..."

"George?"

"Are you sure?" he received a look in reply. "Okay... well, I think you should have gotten married long ago. So does the Inspector, and, well, pretty much everyone else at station house four. We wouldn't have been disappointed if you had... you know."

"Yes. Well." He turned away. "Hopefully soon."

George shook his head, and muttered under his breath, "About time!"


End file.
